This invention relates generally to rolling mills, and in particular to an improved means for supporting the bearing chocks of a work roll in a roll housing.
During a rolling operation, particularly where grooved work rolls are employed to roll shaped products such as rounds, angles or the like, the rolls are subjected to both transverse and axial forces. The transverse forces (commonly referred to as "separating forces") tend to urge the rolls apart, whereas the axial forces tend to shift the rolls axially. If product tolerances are to be maintained, the bearing chocks must be supported or restrained in a manner which effectively opposes both such transverse and axial forces.
The traditional means which have heretofore been employed to restrain bearing chocks are, however, somewhat inconsistent with certain requirements of modern rolling mill design and operation. For example, recent developments in systems for measuring product tension in a continuous multi-stand mill require that at least one of the work rolls of the cooperating roll pair, and its respective bearing chocks be capable of substantially free movement through minute distances on the order of several thousandths of an inch in the direction of rolling. In such systems, sensing devices act on the bearing chocks of the said one roll to monitor product tension. However, conventional restraining means impose a variable frictional load on the bearing chocks in the direction of rolling and this frictional load can be high enough to compromise the sensitivity and accuracy of the aforesaid sensing devices.